Philip Gould’s memo laying out what Gordon Brown needs to do to win an early election makes for fascinating reading. Especially notable is Gould’s belief that elections can’t be won on ‘schools n’ hospitals’ or ‘investment versus Tory cuts’ any more. He writes that:
Yet, what would concern me most if I was David Cameron is Gould’s final point:“There is no doubt that the political landscape is changing: Crime, terror, immigration and so on are now the dominant issues. Underpinning these concerns is a growing sense of the power of events beyond our control – globalised economies, international terror, community disintegration and so on….However, public services and the economy are still important, about equal and just below security.”
As Fraser’s competition to make a compelling and positive case for voting Conservative in one sentence is demonstrating, Cameron is nowhere near giving the public a real sense of what he wants to do as PM.“No one should have any doubt about what you stand for, what you want to achieve, what is your plan. You need absolute clarity in this.”
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